


The Mighty Cockatrice Makes a Friend

by AlouVero, LurKingFisher



Series: Ansel and Nico BFF! [1]
Category: Original Work, Weak Constitution: Common Cat
Genre: Arachnophobia, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Crossover, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Magic, Nobility, boys being just friends, fucked up magical society
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24447697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlouVero/pseuds/AlouVero, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LurKingFisher/pseuds/LurKingFisher
Summary: Ansel's father was throwing a party. Ansel's father was always throwing parties it seemed. Two boys in embarassing costumes, at a party, find something in common! FRIENDSHIP!When paths cross, the possibilities can be endless.Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.
Series: Ansel and Nico BFF! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765720
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7
Collections: Weak Constitution Extended Universe





	The Mighty Cockatrice Makes a Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Weak Constitution: Common Cat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17302013) by [Awkward_Dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awkward_Dragon/pseuds/Awkward_Dragon). 
  * Inspired by [You Can't Spell Knowledge Without an Owl](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23675380) by [LurKingFisher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LurKingFisher/pseuds/LurKingFisher). 
  * Inspired by [Of Clovers and Roses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127456) by [AlouVero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlouVero/pseuds/AlouVero). 



Ansel's father was throwing a party. Ansel's father was always throwing parties it seemed. There'd been one last month and another the month before that, and a fancy dinner party for those who didn't want to attend the fancy standing about talking parties or the spinning around dancing ones, or the not wearing any clothes, or the showing off tricks or... there were just too many parties for Ansel to keep track of.

Which was why Ansel didn't usually attend them, unless he was staying with his father, which unfortunately he was. 

This was a big party, a grand affair, where only the very elite were invited. It was animal themed, as a joke perhaps, but there were masks and there were going to be animal performers and Ansel still hadn't worked out if they were four legged animals or two because his father had been all hush hush about the specifics.

Or would have been, if Ansel had asked him, which Ansel hadn't because his father had been busy and Ansel didn't want to be underfoot. 

His older brother, Heiko, had persuaded Ansel to wear a rooster costume, which had seemed a fantastic idea, when just before the party was about to start, Orla had asked him why he was dressed like a cock, and if he thought the party was a joke and why didn't he take anything seriously? 

She'd looked exquisite, as a swan, as always, and Ansel had been forced into a flap, to scrabble and try and adjust his outfit so he was more presentable. 

In contrast to Ansel, Nico felt as though he was always being dragged to parties. And he didn’t really understand why. Both his parents loathed going out. The carriage rides too and from wherever the party was would be spent with them complaining about who they were going to have to talk to. If it was all so horrible, why couldn’t they all just stay home?

To make it all worse, this party in particular had a ridiculous theme. Nico had been forced into dressing up as a bear cub, to go with his father's choice of ‘ferocious, respectable beast’. There was nothing ferocious or respectable about the fuzzy eared headband that had been forced on Nico’s head. As his parents dragged him around and had him introduce himself, Nico wished more and more that the floor would just open up and swallow him whole.  
  
The first chance he got, Nicolai slipped away from his mother's hold on his shoulder. He hated parties just as much as his parents did, but the difference was that he didn’t bother forcing himself through them.  
  
Every party venue had a place a young boy could hide. A dusty library, an out of season garden, a walk-in coat closet that was already at capacity but had space on the floor for one to sit and pout. Tonight, Nico found himself a stairwell that nobody seemed to have a need to use. It’d be too rude for him to go all the way upstairs on his own, but he felt the landing was a neutral enough space for him to sit and try to rub off the black dot of makeup on his nose.

Ansel stumbled down those same stairs, in a state of disarray, his leggings were green and he was no longer a scared chicken, no, he was "I'm not a cock I'm a mighty cockatrice!" he roared... (okay squeaked) in practice, as he flapped down the stairs, towards the unsuspecting Nico.

There was little mighty about him, the cock's comb was askew, his feathers worse for wear

If he believed it hard enough then Orla would too. "I'm a mighty cockatrice!" he repeated.

Of all the things Nico was expecting to hear when his hiding place was discovered, whatever Ansel was going on about certainly didn’t even crack the top ten.  
  
He’d whirled around to look up at the feathered debacle making its way towards him, makeup smeared across his face and eyes widened near the size of dinner plates.  
  
He couldn’t help himself, after a moment of staring he’d doubled over laughing.  
  
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” He wheezed, “I just wasn’t expecting- what are you even doing..?”  
  
As he took to biting his tongue to keep quiet, Nico tried to offer the strange boy a grin to show he didn’t mean to make fun of him.

"I'm a mighty..." wait, no, wrong line, Ansel grinned, laughing along with Nico. "Ansel. I'm a mighty Ansel. I like your costume. I like monkeys!" It was a monkey outfit, right? "I hope there's monkeys at the party, they were so much fun last time. One escaped and ran off and made such a mess. Have you escaped too?" Ansel's smile was bright, warm and friendly. "We'd probably best not make too big a mess though. Well not unless we can blame it on the others."

“I’m supposed to be a bear,” Nico said with another laugh, “I don’t really think I pull it off well, plus I left the gloves at home.”  
  
He climbed a few steps so that he could offer Ansel a handshake.  
  
“A pleasure to meet you, mighty Ansel. I’m Nicolai. My father is Armon Ward.” Was he doing this right? This was the way his parents had taught him to introduce himself to adults he met on his own. Was he supposed to act the same towards other children? Boys around his age? He couldn’t even recall the last time he’d spoken to another child without any adults around. “You could say I escaped… But I can’t make a mess. My father would be mortified.”

"You are the best bear I've ever seen," Ansel said earnestly. "You are even better than the sad dancing bear that I saw years ago and it was a real bear. It's all about the attitude. Believe yourself to be the bear and you will be bear. Like the animal I mean, not the bare bear, it's not that sort of party."

"It's nice to meet you, Nicolai. Is your father important? Are you?" Ansel shook the offered hand with one of his own which was unfortunately sticky.

"Don't you have servants to clean up messes? Ours always do. It doesn't matter how messy things get they always clean it up. They really like cleaning, and if we didn't make messes they'd have nothing to do. Does your Father have to clean things up? You don't look like a servant."

Nico stood politely through the barrage of information Ansel threw at him, but it left his head spinning.  
  
“You, um. You ask a lot of interesting questions, Ansel.” He said with a grin, this boy was excitable, he thought it was fun even if it was a bit overwhelming, “My father is a specialty trainer. He deals mostly in companions. My mother is a bit more important, she’s a mage. It’s alright if you don’t recognize their names. They probably talk more to your parents…”  
  
The stickiness of Ansel’s hand tightened the grin on Nicolai’s face. He wasn’t sure what the substance was, nor was he certain if he wanted to know.  
  
“I’m not important yet. But I hope to be.” It would mean a lot if he could live up to his parents legacy, “We do have servants, but I’m a guest here. There would be gossip if I misbehaved. I’m probably already in enough trouble for leaving the party..”  
  
He frowned to himself for a moment, attempting to discreetly wipe the sticky residue off his hand and instead on the fuzzy material of his costume.  
  
“Were you having some.. Trouble with your costume? Your thing is crooked.” He pointed at Ansel’s comb, “Would you like some help..?”  
  
If he could lure the other boy into a bathroom or something, he might be able to get him to wash his hands. 

"My mother trains companions too," Ansel smiled brightly. "Chickens. They've the very best maternal nature of any animals, and they make the perfect servants. Chickens will raise any animal you put in their nest when they're broody and they'll look after them like they're their own."

"You didn't leave the party. You are accompanying me, we're still at the party, in general if not in specific. What's wrong with my costume? I thought it was nice and Heiko said it was the best idea and then Orla said it was embarrassing but I just don't understand what's embarrassing about being a cockatrice. So um, yes I'd love some help, thanks. You're so kind, I'm glad I've met you. There's usually not anyone my age at these parties. I'm so glad you came and then found me in order to help me. If we come across your parents I'll tell them how wonderful and helpful you are." And shake their hands with his own sticky fingers quite likely.

Sticky fingers or not though, Nico thought the other boy was very kind. If they did happen to come across his parents and Ansel said such nice things, it might keep him from getting in too much trouble.  
  
“I’m very glad to have met you too… You’re very interesting, Ansel.” More accurate words might’ve been ‘quirky’, ‘eccentric’, ‘ridiculous’... but those words weren’t quite as kind.  
  
“I like your costume, though I can’t say I know what a cockatrice is exactly… Is it a sort of bird?”  
  
Leaning up on his tiptoes, Nico gently nudged Ansel’s headpiece back into place.

"A cockatrice is a type of dragon," Ansel explains. "Only it has the head of a chicken. And sometimes the legs of a chicken. And the wings of a chicken." He concedes. "And is chicken sized. But, they're part dragon. It just varies what part." Yes they're a totally real magical animal.

Ansel looks away as Nico gets close. The cocks-comb is easily righted, not that it really improves the costume. Said costume is fabulously made, nothing but the best, Ansel just wears it rather badly. The bright green leggings don't help.

"Have you had a chance to get any of the food yet. It's really good. What sort of things do you like?"

Ansel’s explanation of what exactly he was dressed as drew Nico into a quiet fit of laughter. Such a bizarre magical creature somehow seemed all too fitting for this boy he’d just met. He wanted to help the other with his costume more, but he didn’t actually have the faintest idea where to start, and so he silently decided that it was probably best not to fuss over the others' appearance any more than he’d already had. Who cared if either of them looked a bit goofy? They were still technically children, their reputations couldn’t end up _that_ damaged.  
  
“Oh, no I haven’t. There was a crowd earlier… I like most things. Except most sweets. Sugar gives me headaches.” He explained, completely unaware that he sounded like an utter nerd, “Is the food good? Are they serving anything you like tonight?”

"You can't have sugar?" Ansel stared at Nico as if he's said he was dying, or worse. "I'm so sorry. No sugar at all? What about fruit? Can you have fruit? Honey? Tree sap? Cake? Do you think they could fix it? There are magical doctors."

If it wasn't obvious Ansel really, really likes sweets. "There's lots of nice food. Do you like spicy things? There's these little puff things, they're nice. And this spicy iced soup so it's all cold and hot at the same time but it's served in a tiny glass. If you want to avoid the crowd we can catch the servants as they're leaving the kitchen and snag a few bits and pieces that way."

“Oh, uh, yes. Yes I can have fruit and honey and all that.” Nico quickly became flustered, feeling as though he’d insulted Ansel by saying he didn’t like something the other clearly loved, “I like fruit and more natural things, but cake and candy are usually too much for me… I like spicy things much more though.” He was definitely intrigued by Ansel’s description of the odd soup, and by the plan of staking out the kitchen.  
  
“That is a great idea. Do you want to go now?” 

"Orla likes showing off her ice skills," Ansel says. "Which is why the frozen things that should be hot, and she's really good at it, and there's always ice about, so nice on hot summer's days, less nice otherwise. If I could do ice I'd work out a way to infuse it into objects to keep people cool, or keep food cool, so everyone could have it. Although I suppose that'd get boring. I don't know."

Ansel tried to grab Nico's hand, his own still sticky, and drag Nico after him. "Yes. Food, then fun. Frozen fruits are amazing. Iced grapes and lemons just great and..." he stops for a moment as if he's forgotten something. "I was thinking of something and now I can't remember."

Despite the stickiness, Nico didn’t hesitate to take his new friend’s hand as soon as Ansel started grabbing at him. His urge to be polite and stay in the other boys good graces overriding any temporary discomfort.  
  
“Heh, if I could do magic I’d probably want to show it off whenever I could too..” He stayed quiet as he listened to Ansel's creative uses for cold magic, “I don’t think that’s boring. It sounds useful to me. Maybe if you used some sort of rune or enchantment it could work.

"I want to do useful things with it, help others, make things more accessible that help people's lives. But it'd need to be done safely and that's difficult, and it's all difficult, and it's not like you can just make healing potions to give to everyone that's ill or something although I wish we could."

Ansel nods. "Maybe. I'm not smart, or anything but I'll look that up, maybe it'd be possible but if it is then someone else will have done it first and I'll be wasting my time. I have to find something unique and different and new and special and that's hard."

All the words tumble out after each other and he barely takes a breath.

Ansel’s waterfall of words kept Nico quiet. Even after it seemed Ansel had said all he wanted to, Nico stayed thoughtfully silent for a few moments.  
  
“I think it's good that you want to try at all,” he said finally, “It takes a certain kind of smart to be able to look around and realize that there are things that still need to be fixed. Lots of other people have seen the same issues and later done nothing about it at all. Maybe it doesn’t always have to be new and different…”  
  
He stole a glance at the other boy’s face to see if he was getting his point across.  
  
“Like, your potion example. Yeah, it might be impossible to find every person who ever gets sick or hurt and give them a potion when they need it… But maybe theres a shortcut. Like a potion that can be mixed into well water, so the water from the well has diluted healing properties- Wells tend to be in the middle of town. Thats an entire town of people that suddenly have easy access to a basic healing potion or… something.” he finished lamely.

Ansel is actually patient-ish waiting for a reply from Nico, giving him time to think. "That's a brilliant idea." And then he frowns, an idea coming to him, but he doesn't voice it, not until he's also had time to think, and then, there they are near the kitchen and he gets distracted by the toings and froings of identically dressed servants, all styled the same carrying platters of food.

"Ivy," he calls to one on the way back. "Could we get a platter of what spicy things are available please. And some of the hot-cold soup if there's any. No sweets." She does look surprised when Ansel says that. "Um, okay, maybe a couple. And, what do you like to drink?" he asks Nico.

"I don't understand why everyone would want to share a well when they can just have plumbing."

“Water please, thank you.” Nico said politely to the servant before looking over at Ansel. He met the others counterpoint with a thoughtful hum, “That's fair. But maybe that's all the more reason to do something like that. If town wells and wishing wells become completely obsolete because everyone has running water, they can be made useful again as potion dispensaries.”  
  
Nico then offered Ansel a sheepish grin.  
  
“But I’m also just kinda making this up as I go. Who knows if anything like that would work. But it couldn’t hurt to at least try, right?” 

"Giant spiders!" Ansel suddenly says. No, there's none around, he just had a thought. "Or worse, flies. All the things and bugs and beasties that get into the water and drink it could get super-healthy too couldn't they? And then that'd be bad and it would hurt everyone. You can't take shortcuts with magic. You have to research and study and read everything and then do all that again and have tests and trials and only then do you implement huge wide plans. Otherwise, giant flies, and other weird consequences."

As Ansel went on to describe Nicolai’s worst nightmare, Nico found himself having to agree.  
“So, maybe it could hurt to try… You’re right. You’re very right. Accursed spiders, they foil every plan I’ve ever made, I swear…” his last words trailed off in a mutter accompanied by a shudder at the thought of giant, eight legged beasts wrecking havoc as their nature calls for.  
“... Sounds like you know a lot. Are you going to be a mage when you get older?” It seemed like as good a topic change as any.

When the food arrives Ansel eyes the platter, picks it up to carry it to a quiet spot where they can sort of see the party's happening, without actually being involved. Or in the same room. Or actually being there. 

Ansel shrugs. "I don't know. I really don't have much magic. Not like everyone else." Most people don't have any magic at all but he seems oblivious for the moment. He stuffs one of the spiced puffs into his mouth, pastry shell giving way to a vegetable filling, then chases that one up with a second and a third. Oops was he meant to offer one to Nico first? 

Nico gave a huffed laugh at the remark of Ansel not having ‘much’ magic. Honestly he was jealous, there was little he wouldn’t do just to have a smidge of magic in him. For a moment he just sat next to Ansel and watched him inhale pastries. It was a little bit funny that out of the two of them, Ansel was the extraordinary one. Even with his green leggings and crooked headpiece. Then again, maybe it was because the other boy was such a mess that he needed the magical leg up. It wasn’t like Nico wanted to get roped into giant-spider hijinks anyway.  
  
With a grin, Nico snagged one of the puffs before they were all gone. 

Ansel's happy to share the food, since there's always more food, and even then he's a person who likes to see others happy. He urges Nico to try the other foods. "I'm so glad you came to the party!" And he is, it radiates from him. "It's been the best party ever and we haven't even seen the animal performers yet!" 

And just on cue the music in the grand ballroom changes. "It's starting," he grabs Nico's hand in his own and drags him through towards the people, the animals, the party, and all the chaos and adventure two boys could ever hope for. All Nico can do is hold on for the ride, and realize that he was pretty happy he’d come to the party too.


End file.
